Stir Fry Cabbage with chana dal-Cabbage Upkari

I love to sleep. In fact my husband is jealous of my sleep, more so when he is prone to even slightest of disturbances like neighbor’s barking dog. I agree barking dog could give many of you sleepless nights especially when other stray dogs decide to join the party and all these canines end up howling and whining entire night for no reason. I do not get disturbed by these unearthly howls and still manage to get sound sleep.

There are days when I miss my alarm due to my sleep and find myself behind by almost an hour in my daily regime and as I have to cook for mine and hubby’s lunch, I find myself with very little time and space to experiment. On such days I often resort to “quick veggies”, you know the types that don’t demand your attention; you just toss them in the pan, throw in some basic spices and it gets ready!!

I often resort to stir fry cabbage with Chana dal (split Bengal gram), when I have very little time. This preparation does not warrant your attention and if you are like me, who likes to prep up your veg preparation by chopping and storing them in Ziploc bags then you definitely have managed to cut on the time. I agree that shredding cabbage is the toughest part, even tougher than making the actual vegetable and I plan to make a blog post on how to shred a cabbage very soon. You can make use of food processor if you want to make your job easier; however I prefer doing it with knife.

This preparation of Stir fry Cabbage is also known as “Upkari”. In Konkan Upkari is a name given to any vegetable preparation that is stir fried, with mustard, chilies, and asafoetida and garnished with freshly grated coconut. These are basically prepared as the side dish to accompany the main course, but folks at my home prefer this side dish more than the mains. This preparation also holds significant place in religious offerings that is offered to deity in Hindu puja, because as per Hindu belief, we offer deity sattvic (something that is pure) food, that does not have onion and garlic in it. This recipe is minus onions and garlic and hence can be included during Hindu Puja. You would also love to make this as a quick lunch box recipe for your kids as it takes very little time to make, and has immense health benefits. It also helps to lose weight quickly; hence you can include it in your crash diets.